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Advice to Gatwick Area Conservation Campaign

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Enquiry

From
Gatwick Area Conservation Campaign
Date advice given
9 September 2021
Enquiry type
Email

what work has PINS done, or plans to do, to confirm that the baseline level of 61 million passengers set out in Gatwick's Scoping Report is appropriate.

Advice given

As part of the development consent process and Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), the Applicant is required to prepare an Environmental Statement accompanying the DCO application which must contain information about the Proposed Development and its environmental effects and include information reasonably required for reaching a reasoned conclusion on the significant environmental effects. Whilst we note the issues you have raised, they are not matters that we can take a view on prior to submission as the Inspectorate has no role in confirming whether a baseline level proposed by an Applicant is appropriate. It is for the Applicant to set out such matters as part of their application documents (and pre-application consultations, where appropriate) and at the point of submission during the acceptance stage, the Inspectorate (on behalf of the Secretary of State) will have to decide whether or not the application meets the standards required to be accepted for examination. As you may already be aware, the Applicant is about to embark on their statutory consultation which includes their Preliminary Environmental Information Report (PEIR). It is likely that their PEIR will contain further details about the approach to the environmental assessments in this regard although please note the content of the PEIR and consultation process as a whole are matters for the Applicant. In shaping their application, the Applicant has a duty to have regard to issues raised during the statutory consultation and so we strongly recommend you continue to raise your concerns especially at this part in the process, in response to the Applicants consultation. Further details of this can be found on their project website at: https://www.gatwickairport.com/business-community/future-plans/. If an application is accepted for examination, an examining authority will be appointed, and they will consider all relevant and important matters through the examination process and have a duty to have regard to any submissions made by interested parties.